Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Boss Fights: Fairly Countering Novas
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6313129" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>I have some insights about the tiger solo example...</p><p></p><p></p><p>I think there are 2 issues here...the first is that "a tiger" rarely carries the same gravitas as, say, a dragon or lich, where such an ability would be more easily swallowed. The other issue is that outright immunity is contrary to 4e design conceits because it's not fun. The problem with Implaccable is that it doesn't distinguish between conditions of varying severity (e.g. dazed vs stunned); downgrading dazed to just combat advantage or stunned to dazed would seem more fair and true to concept. Alternately, more thematically appropriate abilities triggered if you daze/stun/knock prone the tiger could be interesting.</p><p></p><p>A lot of this has to do with expectations. Just what is a big tiger capable of, in the minds of the players? A lot of this has to do with how the DM leads in to the fight and sets up the story. For example, I have run some lurkers as "Schroedinger's Monsters" in the sense that I would include/exclude a few of their abilities based on the PCs investigation pre-combat.</p><p></p><p></p><p>A sensible choice. I wonder if the tiger would have been better designed as a lurker.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I've seen attack penalty spamming shut down solo fight to the tune of -9 for one round, even bearing in mind that power attack penalties don't stack! A party using that kind of control early can shut down a monster very effectively...because few solo monsters are designed to handle it. For example, your tiger should be designed with an action that gives it something meaningful to do when it's odds of hitting are pisspoor...this could b a pounce with automatic knock down and high defense bonuses to opportunity attacks, or an astronomical Stealth bonus in a round it doesn't attack.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Not all alpha strikes are equal. I'm not entirely clear from what you shared...what were the abilities the PCs brought to bear that made it un-challenging/un-fun? Was it copious damage and imposed attack penalties?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 6313129, member: 20323"] I have some insights about the tiger solo example... I think there are 2 issues here...the first is that "a tiger" rarely carries the same gravitas as, say, a dragon or lich, where such an ability would be more easily swallowed. The other issue is that outright immunity is contrary to 4e design conceits because it's not fun. The problem with Implaccable is that it doesn't distinguish between conditions of varying severity (e.g. dazed vs stunned); downgrading dazed to just combat advantage or stunned to dazed would seem more fair and true to concept. Alternately, more thematically appropriate abilities triggered if you daze/stun/knock prone the tiger could be interesting. A lot of this has to do with expectations. Just what is a big tiger capable of, in the minds of the players? A lot of this has to do with how the DM leads in to the fight and sets up the story. For example, I have run some lurkers as "Schroedinger's Monsters" in the sense that I would include/exclude a few of their abilities based on the PCs investigation pre-combat. A sensible choice. I wonder if the tiger would have been better designed as a lurker. I've seen attack penalty spamming shut down solo fight to the tune of -9 for one round, even bearing in mind that power attack penalties don't stack! A party using that kind of control early can shut down a monster very effectively...because few solo monsters are designed to handle it. For example, your tiger should be designed with an action that gives it something meaningful to do when it's odds of hitting are pisspoor...this could b a pounce with automatic knock down and high defense bonuses to opportunity attacks, or an astronomical Stealth bonus in a round it doesn't attack. Not all alpha strikes are equal. I'm not entirely clear from what you shared...what were the abilities the PCs brought to bear that made it un-challenging/un-fun? Was it copious damage and imposed attack penalties? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Boss Fights: Fairly Countering Novas
Top